For a limited set of individuals, whose occupations entail a high degree of visual acuity, such as fighter pilots, surgeons, certain athletes toolmakers, jewelry workers, etc., achieving emmetropia through spectacles, contact lenses and refractive surgery is vital. Assuming that the myopia, hyperopia and regular astigmatism, if one or more exist, can be eliminated by such conventional means, and the eye achieves emmetropia, BCVA (best corrected visual acuity) can however be degraded by pathological factors such as macular degeneration, a cataract, corneal disease or injury, keratoconus, or irregular astigmatism. Even without these factors, the best value of BCVA in a healthy eye may still only be 20/20. Nevertheless, some individuals achieve 20/15 and some special and unusual individuals may achieve a BCVA value as good as 20/08.
Limitation of visual acuity frequently results from the deviation of the human eye from an ideal optical shape resulting in "spherical aberrations". Those individuals having a vision system with especially low levels of spherical aberration, are the ones with the most acute vision. There is however currently no available technology capable of effectively enhancing the normal degree of best corrected or emmetropic visual acuity, achievable with spectacles, contact lenses and refractive vision surgery, such as by reducing spherical aberrations, to provide a "super" vision for the individuals, such as those described above, who are highly dependent on visual acuity.